Press Releases

Under legislation recently introduced by U.S. Representative Scott Perry (PA-4), governors would be authorized to withhold all federal funding from local governments who choose not to enforce federal immigration law.  Rep. Perry introduced the "Follow Immigration Law Act" (H.R. 3391) last week, which was referred to the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees.

“We're a Nation of laws and shouldn’t pick and choose which laws we’re going to enforce”, said Rep. Perry. “Local governments who choose to ignore the law and potentially endanger our citizens must be held accountable.”

The U.S. House recently passed legislation (H.R. 3009, the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act) by a vote of 251-179 to bar sanctuary cities from receiving funding from certain federal programs. While Rep. Perry supported that bill, H.R. 3391 goes a step further by giving governors the ability to ban all federal funding for sanctuary cities.

According to a July 2015 report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), “state and local sanctuary policies caused the release of more than 8,000 criminal alien offenders sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation in 276 jurisdictions around the country over an eight month period.”  The report, based on data CIS obtained from ICE through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, found that “nearly 1,900 of the released offenders subsequently were arrested for another crime within that eight month period.” The ICE document noted that, as of 2014, 276 state and local jurisdictions had adopted policies of non-compliance with some or all ICE regulations.

Sanctuary cities generally are defined as those that “have adopted formal or informal policies that prohibit or substantially restrict police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts”, according to the Congressional Research Service. This can include:  limiting police investigations into the immigration status of persons with whom they come in contact; declining to honor requests made by federal immigration authorities that certain aliens be held until those authorities may assume custody; and by other means.

Although in place for many years, these policies came to national attention on July 1, 2015, when 32 year-old Kathryn Steinle was shot and killed in San Francisco.  Her alleged killer, Mexican national Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who had been serving a federal sentence for illegal re-entry, reportedly had previously been deported five times.  Instead of being deported upon finishing his term, he was handed over to San Francisco on a decades-old drug charge. San Francisco authorities ended up dismissing Lopez-Sanchez’s case and releasing him despite a request from federal officials to keep him detained. 

“Contrary to what some may allege, this isn't an anti-immigration bill. I’m the proud grandson of a woman who legally emigrated from Colombia in search of greater freedom and opportunity for her family.  Legal immigration has made America stronger and I’ve long said we need to reform an immigration system that’s outdated, incredibly inefficient and blatantly unfair to the millions of individuals and families who waited - often for many years - to come here legally. But looking the other way when cities openly break our laws is not the answer.”